Sales of steel products via BUCE up 33% in H1 2020

MINSK, 24 July (BelTA) – The sales of steel products via the Belarusian Universal Commodity Exchange (BUCE) went up 33% to Br27 million, BelTA learned from spokesman for the Belarusian Universal Commodity Exchange Roman Yaniv.

“Since the start of the year, products of ferrous and nonferrous metals worth Br27 million have been sold via the Belarusian Universal Commodity Exchange. The increase made up 33% as compared to the same period last year,” said Roman Yaniv. “Ferrous and nonferrous metals, as well as scrap and waste, accounted for the bulk of the transactions. In H1 2020, companies from Canada, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia and Ukraine purchased Br24 million worth of products, up 20% from 2019.”

The joint project of the BUCE and the Belarusian Steel Works (BMZ) has brought up results as well. Over the period under review Poland bought reinforcing bar worth of more than Br3 million.

According to head of the department of trading in steel products at the BUCE Evgeny Bureiko, the BUCE plans to increase the exports of steel products within the next five years.

“Today, exports account for only 5% of the trade in steel products. The rest is provided by imports and transactions on the domestic market. This is essentially because the exchange was mainly positioned as a purchase instrument for a long time. However, since the end of last year, we have taken a course on the development of exports, and the first step was our joint project with BMZ to diversify the export of Belarusian reinforcing bars. In the future, we plan to expand the product range and develop new promising markets to bring the share of export transactions to at least 20% within the next five years,” said the representative of the BUCE.

The public joint-stock company (OAO) Belarusian Universal Commodity Exchange was established in 2004. The first trade sessions took place in June 2005. BUCE is one of the largest mercantile exchanges in Eastern Europe. Its key function is to assist Belarusian companies with exporting their products and assist foreign companies with entering the Belarusian market. The commodity exchange facilitates trade in metals, timber, agricultural products, and a broad choice of industrial and consumer goods.